Rock & Indie Vinyl 10 Inch 403 Items

Sticker rip off on front cover.

From a deckhand on a container ship idling in the bay, an excitable beachgoer, or a rubbernecker passing through an intersection: it’s as if you’re floating around the city, people-watching through a soft focus lens. Flowertown, the San Francisco duo of Karina Gill (cindy) and Mike Ramos, return with the dreamy, temperate, Half Yesterday. Flowertown’s previous album, Time Trials, focused on the slowing down of time, shutdowns, and a somber look at our day-to-day thoughts. But with over-the-shoulder observations, a ‘slice of life’ from one onlooker to the next, “Half Yesterday” seems to tell the story of the people in a living, thriving, city. Twangy lead guitar, high-neck bass notes, and percussion woven together in the decay of a warm reverb. The album contains the familiar vocal trade-offs between Mike and Karina; oftentimes coming up with two separate melodies for their respective vocals. One stark difference is the beautifully simple production across all of the tracks. Previous Flowertown recordings leaned on the “Portastudio as an instrument” production for many of the songs. On Half Yesterday the tape hiss is there, but it’s not altering the end result. With a fading pink and blue sky, the city’s lights begin to twinkle at sunset. Another onlooker gazes out and wonders if what they’re seeing is right.

Reissued on 10-inch vinyl, previously available as a long-out-of-print 12-inch in 1994. Features members of English bands Snugg and THE Wildhearts.

The Slovak band Shallov releases their new track "Refrain" on the experimental label Weltschmerzen just one year after the release of "Coexist". Two tracks that both span more than 10 minutes in length, work together as one coherent audiovisual art piece and are out as an EP on 10" vinyl. Music videos do not only visually supplement both tracks but they are equally autonomous art pieces.

The visual feature of the music pieces is highlighted by the vinyl's cover painted by Slovak artist Michal Fízik. The previous back cover carries a photograph which served as an inspiration for the painting while the current back has been created via AI reinterpretation.

The musical component of Refrain is based on a repetition building into a hypnotic trance, gradually disintegrating so it eventually ends in a monumental climax. It contrasts the band's previous work as well as the track Coexist which uses rather neverending rhythmic variations, and a changeable vibe and atmosphere.

The concept of the visuals in Coexist is a result of a collective fusion between the theatre director Adam Dragun, Viktor Ori and dozens of other participating non-actors. The video depicts individualistic egoist actions shaping a contradicting and incomprehensible totality of the world which ultimately seems to be alienated to everybody.

Refrain is an introspective journey leading to the dissolution of the individualistic experience of human existence. The video's concept, direction and production was conducted by the visual artist and performer Jak Užovič who also tends to inter-media art and object installations.

As Shallov and Jak Užovič explain the track's conceptual background: "The idea of owning one's own body and mind is an unnatural way of looking at ourselves imposed by the dominant paradigm. It's a blind ideology - the view of a body as a machine or a commodity is incomplete and represents a materialistic utopia which is being systematically internalized. We're not a community that acts right or wrong, our intentions are determined by an ideology which pretends not to exist - our relations are relations of masters and slaves, of domination and exploitation. We are a society bound by these features and even though we refuse to admit it, the world presented to us is only a legend we're striving to keep alive at all costs, while believing that there is no alternative. Our quality doesn't stem magically from the inside, on the contrary, it's determined by the conditions within which we interpret it through collectively shared fictions. We don't get to know our consciousness through ourselves, but we recognize it through others as they create and form us."

‘While in lockdown I wrote a number of psalms, or small, sacred songs—one a day for a week. The seven psalms are presented as one long meditation—on faith, rage, love, grief, mercy, sex and praise. A veiled, contemplative offering borne of an uncertain time. I hope you like it.’ Nick Cave

The new project features seven spoken word pieces set to music by Nick Cave in collaboration with Warren Ellis, and a 12 minute instrumental, recorded during the Carnage album sessions. It was produced by Nick Cave with Luis Almau.

After six years, The Notwist return with three new tracks on Morr Music. It’s both an exposition of the the band’s musical variety and a prospect on a forthcoming album. Six years have passed since The Notwist released their last regular studio album, but that doesn’t mean that the members of this outstanding band have been idle in the meantime. There have been side projects, movie scoring, and other activities, like programming four editions of „Alien Disko“, a festival taking place in Munich, Germany. One of that event’s regular guests was the Japanese duo Tenniscoats – and a lovely side effect from that was an evolving friendship between the two bands. It lead to various collaborations: most recently in a new album by international band „Spirit Fest“ (featuring Tenniscoats singer Saya & The Notwist’s Markus & Cico) & a deep digging compilation of Japanese indie music called „Minna Miteru“. The title track of this new EP is another step in this collaboration – and a first step to an upcoming album by The Notwist – as it features Saya, who lends her voice to the percussive song. It is build around a slightly detuned synthline, which is contrasted by more pragmatic guitar work. „It neither sounds like The Notwist, Tenniscoats, nor Spirit Fest“, tells Markus Acher. „Just like Saya is saying in the lyrics: ‘I want to go outside, I want to meet people’, „Ship“ is another chapter in what The Notwist always tries to do: redefining itself, exploring something new, integrating different styles of music and collaborating with musicians they admire.“ The second song „Loose Ends“ is, in contrast, more classic Notwist material. A gently expanding ballad, this time featuring the distinctive voice of Markus Acher. The song came out of recording sessions for the soundtrack for „One Of These Days“, a movie by Bastian Günther. The EP then closes with „Avalanche“ a carefully optimistic instrumental. With its variety of styles, „Ship“ also serves as an outlook on an upcoming album, which will be influenced by the band’s experiences from their detailed work of creating sounds and moods for film soundtracks, and it will include more collaborations with international guest musicians.

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2018!